Do I have to "Prepare" Fresh foods?

[cmartin]

MY BGK is about 9 inchs long now and I would like to start introducing some fresh foods instead of frozen.

I tried a fresh shrimp - not impressed - he attacked it and then ran away.

Then I tried a piece of fresh beef heart - no interest at all.

He loves shrimp pellets and devours frozen beef heart.

Any tips on how I can 'prepare' the fresh foods so that he may be interested??? He eats everything else that I have tried.
He thinks the sinking pellets I feed the Cory Cats are his 'doggy treats' - he gets really excited!

 

[benzjamin13]

Try stuffing some pellets into the fresh foods and see if it'll go for it.

 

[cmartin]

Someone out there must feed beef heart or fresh shrimp...I just can't seem to get my BGk to pay any attention to them.

I have heard of people adding garlic to some fish food...would this help?

 

[dragonfish]

I just drop small chunks of fresh shrimp or fish into the tank and he tears it up.

 

[congofeet]

Just starve him for a while, he'll come around. And by a while I don't mean one or two days, sometimes you need to go a week before he'll eat what you want.

 

[bluestarjazz]

break the shrimp in to pieces about 1/4 of an inch long my ABK eats them like candy how did you get yours to eat pellets?
as for the beef heart the frozen tends to be shredded and resembles a knife fav worms!

 

[congofeet]

my knife absolutely hates worms. He kills them and spits them out. But he fights the oscar and jack dempsy during feeding time just to get his pellets.

 

[Lady G]

Someone out there must feed beef heart or fresh shrimp...I just can't seem to get my BGk to pay any attention to them.

I have heard of people adding garlic to some fish food...would this help?

I usually cut up the shrimp before I add it to the tank, mine loves it...haven't tried the fresh beef heart though.

I believe the garlic is to help the immune system.

 

[Valkyrie]

I have a 14" BGK that was raised with juvenile Discus, so was raised on beef heart mix amoung other things, until he got to big and I had to move him as he would eat all the food before the Discus got a look in. I feed him my own beef heart mix, Shrimp, blood worms, pellets. Does your BGK feed from your hand as this may help in getting him to eat new foods. Also starve him for a while as others have suggested. When he comes out looking for food only feed him the new food. If yours is anything like mine he will not be hunger striking for long.

Good luck.

 

[cmartin]

Thanks for all the advice.

I target feed with 'tongs'. I started that we he was just 3 inches long and afraid to come of out his cave. I wanted to be sure that he was eating so I held a cube of bloodworms at the mouth of his cave ... and it has continued since then. He comes out to eat now, but I still use the tongs - just not quite brave enough to replace the plastic tongs with my fingers now that I have seen just how big his mouth really is....

I did not try to get him to eat the 'sinking pellets' - they are for the Cory's...but he thinks they are the best thing. It is really fun to watch him try to catch the pellets before they hit the ground. Seeing a 9 inch BGK doing backflips is really cool. The Cory's however, are not as impressed.

I think the pieces I tried to give him were just too big. I will try some smaller pieces but I don't think withholding food from him would be a good idea.

I finally did a 'count' on my Danio's over the weekend...you know one of those days when you just sit and stare at the tank...well instead of 14 I now only have 7. They are so fast that they are hard to count so I am really not sure just when they 'left'.

7 of them were used to cycle the tank - that was before I knew about cycling and the proper way to do it - and I also discovered that you should not rely on old test kits....

Needless to say the poor things went through a lot, even with me doing daily water changes once I realized just what was happening.

Is it possible that they just 'passed on' due to enduring the cycle??? The tank has be cycled now for about a year. I know... but I would like to think that my BGK may have 'cleaned up' rather than 'went hunting'...

The strangest part of it is that the smaller Danios (3 fry that I grew out in another tank but they are still no where near full size) are fine... One that I know is missing was the biggest - in length and girth...a good eater.

With 7 of missing within a fairly short period of time (about a month I would guess) I am still sort of leaning towards a shortened life span. Not that it really makes me feel better - I was me that put them into an uncycled tank in the first place....